Last month I reported from the “nurseries” in the hospital. All our babies are doing fine and growing fast. We finally had twenty-two baby Tawny Owls brought to us for care from several different areas, but mostly from Hampshire. Six of them have been given to the RSPCA centre at West Hatch for release locally; the remainder will be part of our ongoing Tawny Owl Release project.

Our latest Trust baby has just been born and is a Caracara. The mother pushed the egg out of the nest site and it has since been incubated in the hospital. It is hoped to be able to return it to the mother once it is of a suitable size. More about this next month.

We have treated two Trust birds this month. Parsnip, an Oriental White Backed Vulture sustained a cut to a talon on her left foot. This was glued by our vet and Parsnip underwent a course of antibiotics. She has now returned to her aviary. The other was Charlie Brown, a Lanneret mentioned last month. He has fully recovered and has also returned to his aviary.

Barn Owl

We have treated 12 new wild birds this month. We have received two Buzzards, both with fractured wings which were so badly damaged that they had to be euthanased in the hospital.

We are also caring for two Barn owls; one is a young one which had been pushed out of its nest box by the rest of the family. It is a bit on the thin side but does not have any injuries. We are feeding it up in the hope that it can be returned to the next box and will be well enough to hold its own with its brothers and sisters. The other one came to us via the vet centre in North Warnborough, probably suffering from concussion. It is recovering well.

Tawny Owl

One Kestrel is receiving treatment and is recovering well. A Hobby was brought in having been seen to fly into the side wall of a house in Romsey. It had serious head and eye injuries. It died from its injuries, after a few days in our care. An RSPCA officer bought in a Sparrow Hawk found in the Salisbury area. It is recovering well.

We are treating three adult Tawny Owls. One from Basingstoke was very thin when it arrived and had a shoulder injury which may have prevented it from hunting. It is now recovering. A second one came from Salisbury with a badly swollen head and eye and was breathing very noisily. It was euthanased by our vet. The third one has just come to the hospital via our vet with a serious eye injury. It will not eat or take food which may lead to it having to be hand fed or tube fed.

Young Peregrine Falcon

Some good Tawny Owl news: an adult that has been with us since the beginning of May, thought to have been involved in a road traffic accident, was well enough to be released back into the wild near Portsmouth where it was originally found.

We have also treated two rather beautiful young Peregrine Falcons. The first one came to us at the end of May from Fawley Power Station, having been found on a flat roof. It was very thin but otherwise not injured. A few days later the man from Fawley returned with a second bird which had been found at the base of the main chimney. Again the bird was thin and uninjured. The parent birds are nesting on a shelf on the main chimney. The birds are feeding well and will be returned to Fawley in the near future.